NebuAd's platform comprised three main parts: hardware, hosted within an ISP, capable of inserting content into pages, an off-site server complex to analyse and categorise the contents of users' Internet communications, and relationships with advertising networks willing to present NebuAd's targeted advertising.

[14] After noticing problems with Google loading slowly, and the creation of these non-Google cookies, one customer spent hours trying to disinfect his machine, as he incorrectly thought it had been infected with spyware, but, when this proved ineffective, he resorted to reinstalling his machine's OS from scratch, only to discover the problem did not go away.

Firstly, website owners are offered an improved click-through rate (CTR), which could increase profits, or reduce the amount of page-space dedicated to advertising.

Bob Dykes, the NebuAd CEO claimed in 2008; "We have 800 [consumer interest segments] today and we're expanding that to multiple thousands".

[18] Generally, NebuAd provided an additional revenue to network operators, which may maintain or lower consumers' Internet access bills.

Critics of DPI and targeted advertising believe the raw content of their internet communications are entrusted to the ISP for handling without being inspected, or modified, nor for sale.

[19] Privacy advocates criticize the lack of disclosure[20] which some ISPs provided, prior to partnering with NebuAd, was a weak opt-out method,[12] the lack of oversight over what any third-party company does with the contents of Internet communications,[21] its conflicts with United States wiretap laws,[12][15] and the company's refusal to name its partner ISPs.

In February 2008, one American cable operator, Wide Open West (WOW) started rolling out NebuAd.

[14] In response to an inquiry from members of the United States House of Representatives Telecommunications Subcommittee about its pilot test of NebuAd's services,[23] Embarq said it had notified consumers by revising its privacy policy 2 weeks prior to sending its users' data streams to NebuAd.

[25] In May 2008, Charter Communications announced it planned to monitor websites visited by its customers via a partnership with NebuAd.

[15] Members of US Congress, Ed Markey, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, and Joe Barton, a ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, have argued that such services must be opt-in only to comply with the provisions laid down by Section 631 of the US Communications Act, and they wrote to Charter to request them to suspend the test: "We respectfully request that you do not move forward on Charter Communications' proposed venture with NebuAd until we have an opportunity to discuss with you issues raised by this proposed venture.

A report by Robert M. Topolski, chief technology consultant of the Free Press and Public Knowledge, showed NebuAd's devices created cookies on end-users machines by injecting a specious packet into the end of the data stream returned in response to some web page requests submitted to search engines, including Google and Yahoo.

These concerns originated o the NebuAd's "Fair Eagle" operation, patent application data which mentioned such inventions, and a loose relationship to Claria Corporation whose products and history suggest such tactics, as well as by the following: In 2007 it was reported that Redmoon, a Texas-based ISP was using a NebuAd technology to inject Redmoon's own advertising into pages visited by its users.